Magnum Inverter Fault Code...Help Please

[Tom in Ohio]

My 2019 Isata 5 is in the onsite RV Barn and on 15 amp power to the MotorHome. I noticed that my Inverter is not inverting.....was fine yesterday.....and been so since Dec. I check it daily.

This afternoon my remote panel is showing the red fault light and the message:

"Dead Batt Charge." The battery bank is fully charged and everything on the 12 volt side is powered up? My Magnum owners manual said to check the Breaker/Fuse between the batteries and the Magnum unit as it can't read the Battery Bank. I can't find a breaker or the fuse to trouble Shoot??

I noticed when I disconnect the AC power that the magnum panel goes out which is strange since it should run on the battery bank.....everything else is working fine inside the unit that is 12 volt when discounected from AC power??

Battery bank has 6 batteries and is showing 12.6 volts on the Precision Panal and my test meter. There has to be a breaker of fuse causing the issue....but where??

Thanks in advance.

[milkman55]

Your inverter does not “invert” when you are plugged into shore power (even 15 amp). The Magnum should be charging, usually “Float Charging”.

First thing I would try is unplug from shore power and then disconnect the batteries with the red rotary switch to turn off all power. Wait 2 min and then turn the battery disconnect back on and let everything reboot.

There are main fuses near the battery tray, but I don’t have a picture. You comment that you have six batteries is throwing me as they only come with two and I thought the tray would only hold a max of four?

Anyway, the reboot of everything from completely dead state may solve your issue.

[Tom in Ohio]

Originally Posted by milkman55

Your inverter does not “invert” when you are plugged into shore power (even 15 amp). The Magnum should be charging, usually “Float Charging”.

First thing I would try is unplug from shore power and then disconnect the batteries with the red rotary switch to turn off all power. Wait 2 min and then turn the battery disconnect back on and let everything reboot.

There are main fuses near the battery tray, but I don’t have a picture. You comment that you have six batteries is throwing me as they only come with two and I thought the tray would only hold a max of four?

Anyway, the reboot of everything from completely dead state may solve your issue.

I’ll give that a shot in the morning but the Magnum is not showing anything but an error message as stated above. Why would I not have any power in the motorhome except 12 volt if I’m plugged into to 15 amp power? All 120 volt receptacles are dead?

[Tom in Ohio]

Originally Posted by Tom in Ohio

I’ll give that a shot in the morning but the Magnum is not showing anything but an error message as stated above. Why would I not have any power in the motorhome except 12 volt if I’m plugged into to 15 amp power? All 120 volt receptacles are dead?

Sorry I also do have 6 batteries in modified tray.

[milkman55]

Check all your 110v breakers that are on the floor below the rear wardrobe.

All I can think of is the Magnum is confused and maybe the resetting of it by killing the power will fix the issue. Since you have 12V power, I would not thing the batteries or the fuse by the batteries would be the issue.

[Tom in Ohio]

Originally Posted by milkman55

Check all your 110v breakers that are on the floor below the rear wardrobe.

All I can think of is the Magnum is confused and maybe the resetting of it by killing the power will fix the issue. Since you have 12V power, I would not thing the batteries or the fuse by the batteries would be the issue.

Really strange.....I had already checked the breakers under the wardrobe and none were tripped?
I’ll start from fresh in the morning. Appreciate your fresh approach to my issue.

[vlamgat]

I endorse milkman55's advice and would add. when you switch off, allow the coach to stand for 5 minutes to allow all residual charges to bleed off. As you would with a modem.

[Tom in Ohio]

Originally Posted by vlamgat

I endorse milkman55's advice and would add. when you switch off, allow the coach to stand for 5 minutes to allow all residual charges to bleed off. As you would with a modem.

Ok both the 15AMP service and the battery master switch are off. Man that master switch was very hard to turn.
Just a note all the lights and 12 volt items in the coach still work with the master turned off.....Hoping that means the 2 Big Fuses in the battery tray side must be OK?
We had a snow storm here last night so I'll have the power off for about 30-45 min. before powering back up. Sure hope I get lucky.....Back out to the snow blower.

[milkman55]

When you turn the battery disconnect, you should not have any power in the RV.

Because you mentioned you have six batteries, there may be something non-standard in the way the batteries are wired and/or there is more than one cutoff?

If you Magnum display is still on with the disconnect turned to OFF, then we have not achieved what we are trying to do which is cut all the power to allow it to reboot.

[Tom in Ohio]

Originally Posted by milkman55

When you turn the battery disconnect, you should not have any power in the RV.

Because you mentioned you have six batteries, there may be something non-standard in the way the batteries are wired and/or there is more than one cutoff?

If you Magnum display is still on with the disconnect turned to OFF, then we have not achieved what we are trying to do which is cut all the power to allow it to reboot.

Magnum Display inside is off.

[milkman55]

When you resume power, let us know if the Magnum resets and works properly. It’s still strange you have some power in the RV, just not normal after you turn the cutoff switch. The switches are very stiff, especially if you have not used it much. Maybe look for a second switch controlling some of the batteries that were added?

[Tom in Ohio]

Originally Posted by milkman55

When you resume power, let us know if the Magnum resets and works properly. It’s still strange you have some power in the RV, just not normal after you turn the cutoff switch. The switches are very stiff, especially if you have not used it much. Maybe look for a second switch controlling some of the batteries that were added?

The additional batteries were added in parallel to the 2 factory batteries so it's one large bank....no additional switches.

[vlamgat]

Milkman55 is right. You cannot have lights unless some of those batteries are wired outside the inverter charger cut off circuit.

[Tom in Ohio]

Originally Posted by milkman55

When you resume power, let us know if the Magnum resets and works properly. It’s still strange you have some power in the RV, just not normal after you turn the cutoff switch. The switches are very stiff, especially if you have not used it much. Maybe look for a second switch controlling some of the batteries that were added?

OK....I unbolted the main battery cable to kill all power.....That worked even though it is connected to the battery bank master switch which was already off?

Waited 15 minutes but no joy when I powered everything up. I decided to pull the 15 amp service plug and start the generator. After a few minutes heard the transfer switch click and the Magnum came back online. Now it's showing "Low Battery"
which is new fault code BUT I see the the voltage slowly ticking up on the display.

Hoping once the generator finishes a good charge things will return to normal.
Can't believe the batteries are low as it started the generator with no problem?

[milkman55]

When your generator is done charging and you plug back into 15amp shore power, listen for the relatively loud click which is the transfer switch engaging with the shore power. If you don’t hear it click 2-3 seconds after you plug in, the transfer switch may be your issue. That would explain why you didn’t have 110v power.

The transfer switches are know to have issues and need to be replaced.

I am at a loss to explain why your battery cutoff does not cut the power to your 12v in the RV.

[vlamgat]

What sort of batteries are they: AGM, Wet cell, presumably not LiPo? Were they all installed at the same time? With that large a number, are you sure they are all 12v - could be 3 pairs of 6 volts in series and hooked up in parallel?

My guess is that one set are wired to the 12v panel independently of the remainder to provide selected 12v supply without having to turn on the Master and bring the inverter/charger into play.

Fundamentally you should be seeing 14 plus volts during charge, settling back to 13.6 during the absorb stage and declining to 12.4 during the Float stage. The generator will power the inverter/charger to accomplish this.

Edit/Add: The voltage tick up presumably is from the Low Battery state - what was that voltage? Again, pure guess here, I suspect the generator started well because it gets its power and charges all 6 whereas there are 2X6V or 2X12V or even 1X12v that was discharged. Its even possible that the Victron is not reading the entire bank through a wiring error. One last possibility is that one or more batteries have a failed cell. This would mess up the charge ability of all. You can test for this by stopping the charge, shut down the battery connection and remove the -ve cables. Wait one hour, then measure the voltage of each battery. One or more may be below 12.4 which will tell you much more than we can from here.

[Tom in Ohio]

Originally Posted by milkman55

When your generator is done charging and you plug back into 15amp shore power, listen for the relatively loud click which is the transfer switch engaging with the shore power. If you don’t hear it click 2-3 seconds after you plug in, the transfer switch may be your issue. That would explain why you didn’t have 110v power.

The transfer switches are know to have issues and need to be replaced.

I am at a loss to explain why your battery cutoff does not cut the power to your 12v in the RV.

The transfer switch cliks no problem BIRD is blinking and power everywhere I checked is at 12.7 volts inside the power house bay. The generator didn't charge the batteries.....The onboard charger is part of the Magnum 2812 Wave/Inverter Charger which of coarse offline for some reason.

The green power light on the Magnum is off and pressing and repressing the power switch does nothing? The 30 amp breaker on the magnum is not tripped?

Still no 120 service in the unit either, when pluged to shore power. Could there be another breaker somewhere besides the ones previously mentioned? Maybe the Magnum must be powered and in the loop to clear this up?

Looks like I call Magnum in the morning.

[Tom in Ohio]

Originally Posted by vlamgat

What sort of batteries are they: AGM, Wet cell, presumably not LiPo? Were they all installed at the same time? With that large a number, are you sure they are all 12v - could be 3 pairs of 6 volts in series and hooked up in parallel?

My guess is that one set are wired to the 12v panel independently of the remainder to provide selected 12v supply without having to turn on the Master and bring the inverter/charger into play.

Fundamentally you should be seeing 14 plus volts during charge, settling back to 13.6 during the absorb stage and declining to 12.4 during the Float stage. The generator will power the inverter/charger to accomplish this.

Edit/Add: The voltage tick up presumably is from the Low Battery state - what was that voltage? Again, pure guess here, I suspect the generator started well because it gets its power and charges all 6 whereas there are 2X6V or 2X12V or even 1X12v that was discharged. Its even possible that the Victron is not reading the entire bank through a wiring error. One last possibility is that one or more batteries have a failed cell. This would mess up the charge ability of all. You can test for this by stopping the charge, shut down the battery connection and remove the -ve cables. Wait one hour, then measure the voltage of each battery. One or more may be below 12.4 which will tell you much more than we can from here.

All AGM 12 volt just like the 2 that That came with unit. the 4 batteries where installed from day 1 in parallel connected to the original batteries.

No wiring change beyond that. Worked for 2 years now with no issues.

[milkman55]

There is a reset on the Magnum in the electrical bay. See below.
I recall walking someone through this on FB a few weeks ago and the reset on the Magnum itself worked.

[vlamgat]

If the reset does not work, you probably need to replace the Inverter. It happens - twice to me with the Outback 3000 watt units.